Beth Lane and her husband Mark Lane dated 45 years ago but her father broke them up because he thought the were two serious. They reunited via Facebook and and married in June. Saturday, July 20, 2013. This is their high school prom picture.

After his daughter broke curfew a couple of times, Beth Baker’s dad wasn’t happy with her high school sweetheart, Mark Lane.

“We ran out of gas once on the way home, and I lived out in the country,” says Beth, who was a sophomore at Lockett High School in Vernon when she started dating Mark in 1968. He was a senior at Vernon High. “My dad was so mad. He thought we had been parking. We didn’t do anything wrong. I’m sure he was afraid it was leading to more.”

Not wanting to cause tension at home, Beth broke up with Mark in the summer of 1969 as he headed into his sophomore year at the University of Texas at Arlington.

“I was devastated,” Mark says. “I didn’t really get a full explanation of why. So I thought it was over forever. But at the same time, I never forgot.”

He joined the Navy in 1970, got married, had two children and moved to Shreveport, La., and then Glen Rose, but he never forgot Beth. In the meantime, Beth was keeping tabs on Mark through their mutual friends.

“I knew exactly what he was doing and where he was,” she says. “I cared a lot about Mark. We were just a really good fit. It was easy being with Mark.”

Beth had moved on with her life. She attended East Texas State University in Commerce for two years before marrying and moving to the Dallas area.

Mark and Beth didn’t see each other again until 1984 when they were both back in Vernon for Thanksgiving. Mark decided to drive to the Bakers to visit, which is something he had done before. This time, Beth was there. She and Mark caught up a bit, but once again, the timing wasn’t right. They were both reeling from marital splits.

“To be divorced, it’s just devastating. I was embarrassed. That wasn’t what I had planned for my life,” says Beth, who was living in McKinney and had two children.

Mark moved to New Hampshire and then Colorado before landing an instrument technician job at the South Texas Project in Bay City to be near family. He married again and had another child, but that marriage didn’t last either. After a few years, he tried to find Beth, but she was never at Vernon reunions and he couldn’t find her online. In August 2012, he spotted her on Facebook.

Mark messaged, but Beth didn’t answer for months.

“I had to think about it a long time. I didn’t know if I was ready,” says Beth, 61. She had been divorced from her second husband for 12 years. “I had established myself well enough that I didn’t need anybody else.”

In January, Beth answered Mark’s message. He couldn’t believe her timing. He planned to be in North Texas the next week for a bicycle ride. They agreed to meet after the race at Beth’s church in Lewisville.

Then Beth shared something that blew Mark away. She texted him a picture of an ID bracelet engraved with both of their names, a gift from Mark 45 years ago. Mark told her about her sophomore photo that was still tucked inside his yearbook. On Feb. 10, Mark and Beth reunited.

“When she came around the corner, the first time I looked at her, she had me at that moment,” says Mark, now 62.

Within two months, Mark proposed in a field near Beth’s sister’s home in Waxahachie. He wasn’t about to let her go this time. On June 23, they exchanged vows in her sister’s backyard. They say the reception was more like a reunion. Beth’s siblings and her mom fondly remembered Mark after all those years. And her cousin — who had set Beth up with Mark in the first place when she double-dated with Mark’s friend — was there, too.

“Our hearts just touch, and we connect. I can’t really explain it,” says Beth, a vice president and co-founder at CN Staffing. “It’s such a blessing.”

Are you young and recently engaged? Or do you have a milestone anniversary coming soon? We’d like to hear from you. Email Kathleen Green at dmngreen@sbcglobal.net.